From Tom Wilkins : Donald Duck decides to adopt a baby this time around, but after given simple reminders, he is given a kangaroo named Joey. Once Joey sees who adopted him, he jumps on top of Donald and gives him a couple of kisses. Little did Donald know how much responsibility (and frustration) he had to take on. Of course we will never know if this kangaroo had any relation to those used in the 1935 classic "Mickey's Kangaroo."

Donald hops with Joey very briefly, and after holding hands, Donald has to hang on for dear life as Joey hops vigorously back to Donald's house. Immediately Donald is greeted by the first of several phone calls from the adoption center, double-checking to make sure Joey got home safely. Afterwhich, Donald begins to get angry when seeing the kangaroo hop like crazy on Donald's bed. Once Joey hops off, there was no stopping him as he runs over Donald twice and crashes into a glass of grape jam. Donald tells him no, and Joey imitates; notice the gag of jam being used as lipstick here.

Another phone call instructs Donald to give Joey a bath, but is hung up on when he tries to ask a question. At first, Joey refuses to take a bath, but wastes no time jumping into the pouch Donald is wearing. Still, Joey insists on not wanting a bath and does everything he could to not touch the water, frustrating Donald in the process. Finally, Joey's tail gets in the water, but his feet remain above water, so Donald plays "This Little Piggy" with Joey, and after the part where "the piggie stayed home", he tries dunking Joey into the water only to end up all wet himself, with Joey returning to Donald's pouch.

The next phone call tells Donald to dry Joey thoroughly. Meanwhile, Joey continues to hop through the house and even rug-to-rug, even in the most slippery conditions. At one point, Joey slid inside the mouth of a bearskin rug, causing him to immediately rush back into Donald's pouch, hiding for his life. So, Donald entertains Joey by pretending that he is fighting the bear. He swings the bearskin rug around and begins to fight. Unexpectedly, Donald decides to venture inside the rug, pretending that the bear ate him up, but in reality he used the rug as a bear costume. Joey is scared stiff at this point, but he then puts fear aside by grabbing a hot metal stick from a burning fireplace, with the intention of saving Donald. (Typical child psychology, eh?) Donald laughs hysterically but gets poked in the behind with the hot stick and gets clobbered continuously by Joey's feet and later a baseball bat.

After Donald answers the last phone call (with a bit of a roar), Joey slings a huge loveseat at him and Donald flies airborne out of his bear costume and into the rocking crib, originally set for Joey. The adoption center tells Donald to take a rest - and even though he angrily responds, Joey comes to Donald's side and hugs and kisses Donald, cheering him up as the cartoon closes.

Hey...good thing I am not ready for fatherhood just yet!

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Many times over I’ve mentioned in this space that Donald Duck works best as a character when he is in a situation of his temper getting out of control rapidly. What makes that even more amusing is when the situation forces him to control that same temper. We’ve seen Donald be faced with job loss, medical ills, etc. if he didn’t calm down. In Daddy Duck, though, he is given the ultimate check on his temper – a child.

In this case, the child is a joey, or a baby kangaroo, but Donald is still cautioned to remain in control of his temper, or else he will not be a good parent. As things start out, that’s not so difficult to do. The joey is adorable and it seems to like Donald. Even though the kangaroo gets into a few messes, it seems like a typical parent-child relationship.

The character design of the joey is fabulous. It is so cute that you forget that its feet have just trashed a large part of Donald’s kitchen. Even when Donald goes to scold the joey, the little guy merely turns it around and clucks right back at him. The animators and story men did a great job of providing Donald with the perfect antagonist. The joey is not someone who you cannot sympathize with, and serves as a great counterpoint to Donald’s normal rigidity.

In this short, Donald branches out a little more than usual in his personality. While normally he is quite matter of fact, he seems to take much of the joey’s jabs in stride. Even when bath time becomes a problem, Donald doesn’t get that upset, compared to his normal moods. Where things really get interesting, though, is when the little kangaroo gets scared of Donald’s bearskin rug. To make him feel better, Donald jumps over and attacks the rug to show the joey that he has nothing to worry about.

Thus begins one of the funniest sequences in the late 40s of Disney animation. Donald gets a little carried away and has the bear “eat” him, which drive the joey into action. Imagine Donald in a bear suit running around his house being chased by a kangaroo that is kicking him wildly. If it sounds funny, watch this short. Daddy Duck isn’t perfect, but it does give you fun moments and some really big laughs.

From Ryan : This is one of my favorite Donald shorts. It demonstrates how Donald can be as a parent (in this case to a baby kangaroo named Joey). After Donald signs a paper to adopt Joey, Joey drags Donald home. One part I find humorous is where Donald slips into his bear rug and fools Joey into believing that he is being attacked by a bear. Joey runs after the "bear" and starts pouncing on it. Other problems Donald has with the baby include the part when the baby eats some jam and Donald has to give him a bath. At the end, however, the adoption agency phones Donald and tells him that he should take a nap. Donald certainly is ready to take a nap after all that.

From Candy : I have always loved this cartoon for the great animation and the spunky character of Joey the kangaroo. I have always wondered about one scene in the cartoon. It almost looks like something has been edited out of it, but I can't be sure about it. There's a part in the cartoon where Joey is eating jam and Donald gets the phone call from the adoption agency telling him to give him a bath. The very next scene shows Joey standing in the corner, shaking his head "no" at Donald and giving him an angry look. It almost seems like there was another scene before this one, because we don't see how Joey got in the corner. He's mad at Donald, but the scene before this doesn't explain why he would be mad at him. So it seems like there was another scene before the one where he's shown standing in the corner. But it's not like I KNOW for sure that there was a scene that was cut out. There are many other cartoons that we know have been censored and edited for political reasons. I know that some cartoons have been edited because I've seen them on the Disney Channel back in the 80s when most of them weren't edited. If you've seen them in their original form you'd know if they've been cut. But there are some cartoons that have been edited long ago, and so few people have seen them in their original form. I'm just wondering if this cartoon, Daddy Duck, had another scene in it that has been edited out long ago and is now lost. I could be totally wrong about this. Maybe there's no edited scene. It just seems like there's something missing here. There's no transition scene from Donald talking on the phone to Joey standing in the corner. How did he get in the corner, and why is he there? It seems like there should be a scene before this one but it's not there. I bet something has been cut out, and it's been cut out a long time ago. I wonder if any Disney buffs out there know anything about it. Is there a missing scene or am I getting too wrapped up in details?

From Baruch Weiss : This is one of my favorite Donald cartoons. The kangaroo (appropriately named Joey) was very cute and I enjoyed the scene where Donald tricks Joey into thinking that a bear (which is actually his rug) into thinking the "Bear" ate him. A cute cartoon and recommended to all Disney fans.

Poster

Daddy Duck

A Donald Duck Cartoon

Synopsis

Characters

Credits

Director

Animation

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Layout

Story

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Video

Italy

DVD

United States

Germany

Italy

Canada

United Kingdom

Television

Technical Specification

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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